World’s Largest Consumer Products Company Bans Netflix

The world’s largest consumer products company has blocked access to video-streaming site Netflix and the music-streaming site Pandora on company computers.

Procter & Gamble wanted to find out why its computers were running slowly, and discovered that the culprit was online videos and music streaming, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. As a result, P&G took "a first step" by blocking access to Netflix and Pandora, the article notes, citing an internal memo acquired by the publication.

The demand for videos, music and other entertainment had grown so large that it had exceeded P&G’s capacity, “requiring immediate intervention,” according to the memo.

Nevertheless, P&G hasn’t banned YouTube or Facebook, which the company uses for marketing its brands and for internal and external communications.

Videos, music and photos from sites including Netflix, Pandora and YouTube had been taking up a quarter of P&G’s bandwidth, the memo noted.

Bandwidth spikes came during major sports events, such as the World Cup, which suggested employees were watching ESPN.com on company time, the story says.

P&G isn’t alone in instituting entertainment bans on employees, with GE Aviation blocking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, the story points out.